Wiki: Mindfulness Meditation

Here’s a great post from The Committed Parent which is a blog I like a lot.  I mean, how can you not?  Their tagline is:  “Translating social neuroscience to help parents raise kids we can live with and we’re crazy about.” In this article, Mark Brady writes about the ACC, or “Anterior Cingulate Cortex,” which [...]

From one of my favorite meditation teachers, Sharon Salzburg (who has a new book out, The Force of Kindness: Change Your Life With Love and Compassion).  Sharon posted this on her Facebook page, and I thought I’d share it here as well. “Though a convention, a new year can mark new beginnings, bringing thoughts of [...]

…with thanks to @WilliamHarryman at integral-options.blogspot.com for bringing this interview to my attention. Enjoy! ~ Marsha WHEN I MEET UP with Norman Doidge it’s at the end of a long day of interviews and he looks exhausted. “Give me a few minutes to get myself together,” he says wearily as he ducks up to his hotel [...]

Here’s a great article originating at UC Davis, found on ScienceDaily, which provides a significant link between mindfulness meditation and psychological well-being. Enjoy ~ Marsha Positive psychological changes that occur during meditation training are associated with greater telomerase activity, according to researchers at the University of California, Davis, and the University of California, San Francisco. [...]

Your amygdala — an area associated with fear, anxiety, and anger — needs to have clean lines of communication to other parts of the brain. This piece of research reveals more detail about mis-connections from the amygdala in people with a particular anxiety disorder. (If you have anxiety which is poorly controlled, and then you [...]

Nice article on why you need a high-functioning prefrontal cortex — that’s the part of the brain behind your forehead, and it functions a lot like the CEO of your brain. But what’s missing from the article is that the prefrontal cortex needs to be able to communicate well with other brain areas, especially those [...]

A fantastic way to hear one of my “contemplative neuroscience” heroes, Richie Davidson, PhD, talk about the latest findings in neuroplasticity, meditation, and well-being. He says, “It is clear that the intentional deployment of specific mental training strategies (such as those derived from the world’s great contemplative traditions) can induce plastic changes in the brain [...]

From my perspective, having a full, authentic life is about having healthy, vibrant relationships — your relationship with yourself, with others you know, with the world at large, and/or with something greater, if that suits you. Without relationships, there can’t be much else. So how do you make changes in how you do your relationships? [...]

This type of brain imaging, fMRI, is considered the gold standard in research on the brain (and is used in many of the studies on meditation’s effects on the brain). I find it fascinating, and I’m glad to find more and more articles in less-technical jargon talking about it. Can a brain scanner decode your [...]

From The Scientific American Blog Author Credit: Carina Storrs Clinical depression can zap the pleasure out of an enjoyable meal or the thrill out of winning a prize, among other symptoms. Not surprisingly, a region of the brain involved in reward and motivation, called the nucleus accumbens, has been associated with depression. But up to now, [...]

From The New York Times A college soccer player retaliates against an opponent by pulling her down by the ponytail. A tennis champion has a tantrum on the court, costing her a shot at winning another major title. An all-star catcher throws an elbow, touching off a brawl that puts his teammates at risk for [...]

I feel fortunate to be a psychotherapist in this day and age. Aside from the change we and our clients can report anecdotally, there is increasing evidence to support the potential for true change within the brain via the therapeutic relationship. I’m no expert in neuroscience and relationships – but am excited about the notion [...]

AUTHOR CREDIT: Mark Brady Except for a brief stint in my early twenties working in for-profit corporate America, for most of my life I have been drawn to so-called “heart work.”  I involved myself with non-profits providing important and meaningful service in the local community. When I lived on the San Francisco peninsula, I volunteered [...]

From Science Daily: ScienceDaily (Nov. 13, 2009) — Short-term memory may depend in a surprising way on the ability of newly formed neurons to erase older connections. That’s the conclusion of a report in the November 13th issue of the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication, that provides some of the first evidence in mice and [...]

Why employees (and your kids) sometimes lose the plot David Rock continues his excellent explanation of his model for understanding how your brain can function better at work. His SCARF model includes easy-to-understand neuroscience so you can be at the top of your game. S = Status, C = Certainty, R = Relatedness — covered [...]

It’s never too late to have a (brain that’s wired as if it had a) happy childhood1 Therapists get this question a lot: “Okay, so now that I understand how my history made me a mess when it comes to relationships, what now? It’s not like I can go back in time and change my [...]